Sputnik, the first artificial earth satellite, has only been launched 11 years before, in 1957: Sputnik.

When I compare the images from today's ISS with Kubrick's and Arthur C. Clarke's vision, I'm astonished that Clarke could have envisioned a space station so well and that Kubrick - and his team, of course - could have brought it to the screen.

Palin's quirky invocation of the "Spudnut Shop" here in Richland Washington as an example of American "can-doism" is far more ironic than you and most of your readers likely realize.The fact is, the town of Richland was literally built by the federal government as a part of the Manhattan Project. All of the houses that surround the Spudnut shop were built by the Army. To this day, the only employer in Richland of any consequence is the Department of Energy and the contractors that work on DoE contracts at the Hanford site, just north of Richland. As a result, virtually all of the Spudnut shop's customers are paid by tax dollars. Those that aren't are retirees, drawing government pensions and social security.Were it not for government spending, the Spudnut shop would be bankrupt in a week.

... She may not realize that the federal government buys most of those doughnuts: the annual budget for cleanup of the nearby Hanford Nuclear Reservation is more than $2 billion, employing about 11,000 workers, and spudnuts are the pastry of choice at meetings there.

That little shop is "so successful" because "patriotic Americans" were scarfing down yummy num-nums for 65 years, thanks to their very own federal government. I'm feeling full just thinking about it.

Boy howdy, no way is Big Guvmint gonna get away with telling us what to do, nosireebob! Also. There. Too. Thank the lord for second helping remedies!